Karmiel

Karmiel - Community Service

In Karmiel, you will spend four months living with other Nativers in apartments in an absorption center and doing volunteer work every day in the surrounding community. Karmiel is located in the northern part of Israel, about an hour north of Haifa and about twenty minutes from a town called Akko. Karmiel is a growing city with plenty of opportunities available to have a great impact on the residents of this town.

In Karmiel there is an extremely wide variety of jobs offered to Nativers. Nativers will generally have two main jobs: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This gives the Nativers the ability to work in multiple settings while at the same time providing the community with consistency. Nativers will work four days a week, which is great for creating strong relationships with the people in their workplaces.

Living in an absorption center also provides the opportunity to be interacting with the newest members to Israeli society who have interesting backgrounds and life stories, and are often interested in interacting with their American neighbors. There are some occasions for working formally with them, and many times when informal interactions are encouraged.

Karmiel Volunteer Opportunities

Beit Sfer Hadekel/Beit Sfer Colonit Elementary Schools

Nativers can work in one of the elementary schools in Karmi’el and volunteer directly with kids. They help tutor kids in the English classrooms. If you enjoy working with kids and teaching, this is a great place to be. It is also an excellent opportunity to improve your Hebrew skills

Beit Gil Akkim Factory and Afterschool Center–

Akkim is a facility for mentally disabled adults. The two possibilities for working at Akkim are Beit Gil, a facility for adults who are severely mentally disabled, or the Akkim factory, where adults who have less severe disabilities get paid to work in an assembly line or on art projects. There is also an afterschool special needs facility for teens. Here Nativers participate in activities with the teens including, swimming, gym, arts and crafts, games, and cooking.

Magen David Adom – One of the most exciting and interesting opportunities is volunteering with Magen David Adom, Israel’s national ambulance service. This work provides direct contact with many facets of Israeli society, important life skills and a lot of fun. The Nativers volunteering with MDA will spend a week of their winter vacation participating in the 60 hour training course.

Gan (Kindergarten) – Nativers can work at a Gan “Iris”, as teacher’s assistants. They help out in the classroom but also play with the children.

Salachat Chmah Soup Kitchen – Salachat Chamah is a soup kitchen where Nativers washed dishes, served food, prepared food packages, and helped with other things around the soup kitchen. Everyone who volunteered here practiced their Hebrew and enjoyed the experience.

Kifle Aviv Mischakia – Kifle Aviv is an afterschool center for kids with hyperactive disorders and other physical disabilities. It is a place where you go and play with kids, help them with their homework, arts and crafts projects, and even woodworking.

Kfar Yeladim - The Kfar HaYeladim is a village for children who come from broken homes. Twelve children live in a house with a housemother and father, similar to foster families. At the Kfar each Nativer is assigned a house to help with homework, tutor the kids in English, play soccer, and so much more.

Yad Sarah - Yad Sarah is an organization that provides medical equipment to people for free. Jobs consist of cleaning and fixing the medical equipment to fixing up the working space. This is a great place to work if you enjoy working with your hands.

Beit Sefer Amit - Nativers work at this religious high school with a specific English teacher in all of her various classes. The students range from seventh to twelfth grade who have varying levels of English. If you enjoy helping students learn and being part of a tight-knit community, Beit Sefer Amit is for you.

Kishorit – Kishorit is a community of special needs adults that work doing jobs that are similar to jobs you would find on a kibbutz. The volunteer jobs available have a wide range, including horse stables where many of the members come for therapeutic riding.  

Chavat L'limudei - This is a small, educational, and organic farm a short walk from the Karmi'el’s absorption center. Every second grade class in the city comes to the farm for a two hour class once a week. Here Nativers can help out in the field, in the greenhouse, the nursery, or with the teachers.  

Beit Sfer Psagot – Psagot is a recently merged high school from three different areas and as such, it provides a great opportunity to work with a diverse student body and rapidly improve your Hebrew. Most of the opportunities here are in tutoring English.